Review: The Last Of Us, "Kin" | Season 1, Episode 6
Joel and Ellie meet Joel's brother Tommy, and Joel makes a choice that may not end well for him
Three months, huh. I think that might be my biggest problem with “Kin:” the time jump which, in trying to move us past Henry and Sam’s death, inadvertently kneecaps the show’s efforts to develop Joel and Ellie’s relationship. It’s a bizarre choice. There are time jumps in the source material, and I get that a limited run season of television can’t spend multiple episodes on two characters crossing the country—we need to shortcut some of the geography if we want to have any real movement at all. But given that the whole point of the story is the slow-burn bonding between two characters who need each other but want to pretend they don’t… it’s not great. Three months is a long time, especially in a molded infested wasteland full of killers and weak gasoline.
Worse, as far as I can tell, there’s no real change between Joel and Ellie when we pick up with them approaching the outskirts of Tommy’s encampment. I’ve been holding off critiquing the dynamic between the two for a while,…